
Born to the Hosokawa family, which ruled present-day Kumamoto Prefecture from the 17th to the 19th centuries, Hosokawa Morihiro was prime minister of Japan from 1993 to 1994, when he led an eight-party coalition that was the first government not headed by a Liberal Democratic Party member since 1955. After retiring from politics in 1998, he apprenticed with the renowned potter Tsujimura Shirō and now focuses on making his own ceramics.